Covid exposed major gaps in our healthcare system. In a 2021 study, nearly half of Americans surveyed reported recent symptoms of an anxiety or depressive disorder, and ten percent of respondents felt their mental-health needs were not being met.
Furthermore, rates of anxiety, depression and substance-use disorder have increased since the beginning of Covid. As we continue to emerge from the pandemic, communities across the nation are finally starting to take mental-health services seriously. After years of whittling away at these essential programs, we have seen critical investments in mobile mental health, a crisis stabilization center and the establishment in Ulster County of our county Department of Mental Health.
Yet around New York State and the Hudson Valley we have a lot of work to do to fully tackle this problem. If we are serious about addressing mental-health needs, we must take a hard look at our courts and criminal justice system. Countless incarcerated individuals struggle from mental-health-related issues. More than three out of five people in prison who have a mental illness do not receive treatment there.
Our jails are ill-equipped to handle these issues with the care that the incarcerated deserve and need. Residents with mental-health needs deserve a trauma-informed care response as a viable alternative to incarceration.
We can fundamentally rethink how we address mental health through our courts and justice systems by creating additional mental-health treatment courts. Such courts combine judicial monitoring with community-based treatment and services, usually as an alternative to jail or prison. A person who is charged with a crime can agree to a negotiated contract to engage with a mental-health treatment court which upon successful completion earns that person any combination of the following: no incarceration, a reduced charge(s), or a dismissal of their charge(s). The person agreeing to participate with treatment courts is represented by an attorney, and any agreement must be approved by the presiding judge.
There are currently a number of these courts in New York State. However, counties in the Hudson Valley, including my home community of Ulster County, do not offer this vital service. According to an evaluation of two mental-health courts in New York prepared for the
National Institute of Justice, participation reduces the likelihood of re-arrest by 46 percent. The reduction in the likelihood of a reconviction for participants in the program decreases by 29 percent versus a comparison group.
Now more than ever, as many elected officials pursue a war on truth itself, it is crucial to utilize data and fact-driven solutions to pursue public policies. The evidence on mental-health treatment courts is clear. They work.
Ultimately, these courts improve public safety, enhance the lives of those struggling with mental-health issues, and free up our overtaxed criminal justice system to focus on more pressing matters such as violent crimes and drug suppliers profiting from those who suffer from addiction.
The huge fiscal implications of a mental-health treatment court cannot be overstated. In state prisons, New York spends an average of over $315 a day, or nearly $115,000 per year, to incarcerate one person. At a time when our local governments are struggling to pay for services while keeping taxes down, these programs provide the rare combination of saving taxpayer dollars and expanding access to mental-health treatment – all while keeping our communities safe.
We are finally starting to remove the stigma around mental health while renewing conversations about criminal justice and public safety. Mental-health courts are a solution to achieve both these goals, and must be utilized to help keep our communities safer.
Jarrid Blades is a former prosecutor who currently serves as chief civil administrator in the Ulster County Sheriff’s office. He is running as a Democrat for Ulster County district attorney.
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